Professors Mitsu Murayama and Bill Reynolds using one of the transmission electron microscopes at the Nanoscale Characterization and Fabrication Laboratory.

The National Science Foundation just announced the winners of a collective $81 million in funding for the National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure (NNCI), and Virginia Tech is one of the universities involved.

The NNCI will be a network of 16 centers, each with a unique area of expertise in nanotechnology. Virginia Tech’s center will focus on earth and environmental nanoscience—an area in which Tech has achieved international recognition, thanks to the leadership of University Distinguished Professor Mike Hochella, a professor of geosciences.

The NNCI network will serve as a central resource for colleges, universities, and companies who are interested in pursuing nanoscience and nanotechnology, but don’t have access to specialized equipment, or the expertise to analyze materials at scales a hundred thousand times smaller than the thickness of a sheet of paper. NNCI centers can offer access to instrumentation and internationally renowned experts, speeding up the pace of discovery in the rapidly expanding “nano” sector.

So membership in the network dramatically raises a university’s profile in the world of nanotechnology, identifying it as a source of cutting-edge research and a hub for scholarship and technology transfer.

In a letter of support for the NNCI proposal, Sands wrote that his long-term vision for Virginia Tech “includes a continued commitment to nanoscience and nanotechnology,” and praised Hochella’s leadership in preparing the university to become “the dominant force in this relatively new and now critical area of study and development.”